Hello! My name is Carrie Logan and I would be honored to serve as your City Council Representative. My husband, Tony, and I have been married for 30 years and we have raised our two sons in Eutaw.. I am an active member of my community, church and the city of Eutaw.. I serve on the vestry at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. I regularly volunteer for church functions, community clean-up days and support community events. I have served as President of the Chamber of Commerce for 4 years, member of the Greene County Historical Society, member of the Eutaw Garden Club and organizer of the City of Eutaw’s Annual Christmas Parade..
I believe all citizens are important to the growth, success and future of our city. I will strive to serve with integrity, as your voice and advocate for the needs and concerns of District 5 citizens. With your help, it is my goal to work with our mayor and council to continue to move our city forward. Let your voice be heard. Elect Carrie Logan for District 5 City Council. Thank you, in advance, for your consideration and VOTE.
Five West African leaders are travelling to Washington this week for a somewhat surprise meeting: US president Donald Trump announced in late June that he would host the heads of state of Liberia, Senegal, Gabon, Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau for a three-day meeting. Washington has cited “commercial opportunities” as the reason for the mini-summit, lasting from 9 to 11 July. It’s seen as the first major diplomatic outreach to Africa from Washington since Donald Trump returned to office, following a tense one-on-one meeting between South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and Trump in the White House in May. The five countries invited to Washington have valuable natural resources, including oil, gas, gold and rare earth minerals. But all of them also face considerable challenges such as corruption, authoritarianism and political instability. What agreements and results will come from their meeting with the American president remain to be seen.
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Each year approximately 7 million college students benefit from Pell Grants, a 50-year old needs-based program that can be used to cover costs for tuition, fees, living costs and room and board. Additionally, these funds have been available at both 4-year and two-year institutions.
For students of color and others who are the first in their family to attend college, Pell Grants have been an important part of financial aid packages for an estimated 80 million low-income families with little or no wealth.
But the federal Education budget for FY 2026, recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, would cut Pell Grant funding by $9 billion to $22.5 billion, compared to 2024’s $31.5 billion. If approved, this significant cut will mean that next year a vital program will serve fewer students with smaller grants, changed student eligibility, and fewer institutions that would be allowed to administer the program.
Currently, the maximum Pell Grant award for the 2025–26 academic year is $7,395 and can be used by both full and part-time students.
If the Senate agrees to the House-passed budget, a maximum Pell award would drop to $5,710 for the 2026-27 academic year and be limited to only students completing 30 academic credit hours, or 12 to 15 credits per semester. Students completing at least 12 academic hours but fewer than full-time, would receive smaller, pro-rated grants.
Students enrolled in fewer than 12 credit hours would no longer be eligible for Pell Grants. Both community colleges and the adult students they serve would be affected by this specific change. Adult students are often employed and have dependent children with responsibilities that do not allow for heavy class loads. Even so, these students choose to return to academic studies to enhance their skills, credentials, and earnings.
At a recent hearing by the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee a prominent HBCU president called against enacting these steep cuts.
“Today, PELL Grants provide up to $7,395 annually to more than seven million low- and moderate- income students,” testified Tuskegee University President Mark A. Brown. “For context, a single parent with two children earning up to $51,818 adjusted gross income (225 percent of the federal poverty guideline) can qualify for the maximum award.”
“However, this maximum amount covers only 31 percent of tuition, fees, room and meals at the average public four-year college, compared to 79 percent in 1975,” he continued. “Cuts to the program would put college out of reach for many more low-income students, while increased would represent a true federal investment in education, reduce dependence on loans, and help address workforce skill deficits.”
Nor is Tuskegee alone in attacking proposed cuts. Other education stakeholders have also weighed in.
“To reduce the maximum Pell Grant when we should be doubling it, reduce the number of students eligible for Pell Grants, increase the number of credit hours necessary for Pell without consideration for students who work their way through college, and to impose risk sharing on colleges who cannot force students to make student loan payments in an increasingly uneasy economy just seems as if those who wrote this bill are out of touch with reality,” said Lodriguez V. Murray, the United Negro College Fund’s senior vice president for public policy and government affairs.
For Katherine Meyer, a fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, the proposed Pell cuts are a part of a broader retreat from a federal role in higher education.
“Between the ongoing budget reconciliation process and President Trump’s FY 2026 budget request, federal financial aid is at risk,” wrote Meyer in a recent post. “Provisions in the reconciliation bill would eliminate Pell grant eligibility for millions of students, and the budget proposes eliminating or dramatically reducing Pell and other federal grant aid. Without robust federal funding for financial aid, states and students will scramble to fill in the gaps, with the end result being fewer opportunities to pursue higher education for the lowest income students.”
On May 21, Education Secretary Linda McMahon testified before the subcommittee of House Appropriations to defend the agency’s FY 2026 budget request.
“President Trump’s vision is to make American education freer, fairer, and more competitive globally by eliminating Federal bureaucracy and empowering states, parents, and educators,” testified McMahon. “Our FY 2026 budget request delivers on this promise by reducing spending for ineffective programs and prioritizing effective ones, while fully enforcing Federal law and giving power back to states, parents, and educators.”
The nation’s broad disagreement on these and other changes to the Education Department were perhaps best summarized in another testimony at the HELP committee hearing. According to Mark Pierce, Executive Director of the Student Borrower Protection Center:
“Americans deserve more than a higher education system that acts as a finishing school for the children of millionaires and billionaires while systematically denying economic and educational opportunities to the rest of us. Our government should be relentlessly focused on making markers of middle-class American life—including education—cheaper for working families, not more expensive.”
Charlene Crowell is a senior fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org”>Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.
Attorney Benjamin Crump addresses press conference in Homewood, Alabama church. Jabari Peoples, 18, was shot to death June 23, 2025, by a Homewood police officer in a city soccer park.(Facebook)
National civil rights attorney Ben Crump has joined to fight for any footage to be released in the killing of a beloved Alabama teen who was shot to death by police in a Homewood city soccer park. Crump, known for his work on cases such as the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, was joined by Birmingham attorneys Leroy Maxwell and Rodney Barganier, Black Lives Matter and other community activists at a Tuesday press conference. Crump said he is getting involved because 18-year-old Jabari Peoples was doing everything right in life when he was shot to death June 23. Peoples was a 2024 graduate of Aliceville High School where he was standout track athlete and football player. Peoples had just finished his freshman year at Alabama A & M where he was studying computer information and criminal justice with hopes of becoming a law enforcement officer, specifically a detective. He had no prior arrests, Crump said. “There’s nothing in his history that would suggest that he’s going to try to shoot a police officer,” Crump said. “This is a tragedy of unimaginable circumstances,” Crump said. “His mother and father should be given a gold medal for the child that they were raising.” )Maxwell said he’s thankful Crump is joining the legal team.“In all this tragedy, today is actually a good day,” Maxwell said. “I’m glad we brought in a big gun. We needed it here.One of the things he brings is that coalition,” Maxwell said. “(The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency) typically acts in a certain way and oftentimes they won’t release these videos under pressure, but they haven’t felt pressure like this in what attorney Crump brings to the table.” Homewood police say a veteran officer, who has not been publicly identified, approached the vehicle to investigate because of a recent increase in criminal activity in and around the city’s athletic complexes. The officer, police say, smelled marijuana and ordered Peoples and his female friend out of the vehicle. Police say the encounter ended with Peoples resisting, breaking away from the officer as he tried to handcuff him, and grabbing a gun from the driver’s side door pocket. The officer shot Peoples, who was pronounced dead a short time later at UAB Hospital. Peoples’ family and attorney Maxwell disagreed with that narrative, saying that Peoples wasn’t armed and didn’t resist. The Homewood Police Department turned the investigation over to ALEA, which is standard policy for many officer-involved shootings. ALEA denied the family’s request to see the footage, saying release of the video footage would jeopardize the ongoing investigation. There have been several protests following the fatal shooting, including at the Homewood Police Department, ALEA’s office in west Homewood, Homewood City Hall and during the World Police and Fire Games last week in the Birmingham area. Though Alabama state provides a way for families to view body camera and dash cam videos, the same law also allows law enforcement to withhold the footage for investigative purposes. Crump said he is grateful for all lawyers who take up the mantle to fight against injustice, to fight against the system for people who others think can be swept under the rug. “You won’t sweep Jabari Peoples under the rug,” Crump said. “His family is just asking for answers. Is that so much to ask for?” he said. “Your 18-year-old son who’s never convicted of any crime, he’s never even been arrested, was doing everything right that you would want for a child and he’s killed by the police, the people who are supposed to protect and serve him. Wouldn’t you want answers?” The attorneys said trust and transparency are on the line. “This is very straightforward,” Maxwell said. “If we’re about trust and transparency, honoring Jabari and his family, honoring the community and honoring the relationship that we want so deeply with law enforcement, it is necessary to release the footage. “This is not a hard investigation,” Crump said. “I mean, you got a video, you got an autopsy and you got an eyewitness. It shouldn’t take you a year to finish this investigation.” “Show the video. You can shut all of us up, shut me up, shut Black Lives Matter up, shut up attorney Maxwell, shut up (community activist) Frank Matthews, shut up everybody,” Crump said. “Show us the officer did nothing wrong. Show us that it was justified.”
“If the officer did nothing wrong, we’ll be quiet,” Crump said. “We won’t say a word. But if he did something inappropriate, then we want justice for Jabari.” Crump said the family is seeking to have a private autopsy done before Peoples’ funeral which is set for Saturday at Aliceville City Hall. “Because we don’t have the autopsy from the medical examiner, the family has to go through extraordinary lengths to have an independent autopsy performed before the funeral and that’s exactly what they are going to do because we need to know,” he said. “We know the cause of death was a gunshot, we want to know the trajectory, the point of entry, the point of exit.” Maxwell has said previously that an investigator who conducted a detailed charting of Peoples’ body found he was shot once in the back. Peoples’ parents, siblings and other family members joined Crump at the press conference at Friendship Baptist Church in Homewood and spoke of their slain son. “He had a lot of dreams, and he was willing to work for those dreams,” his mother, Vivian Sterling, said. “Sometimes I thought he wanted to do too many things. He’d pass the airport and say, ‘Mama, I’m going to get my pilot’s license, but I don’t know if I’m going to do it before or after I go into the military.’” “He wanted three different degrees, computer engineering, electrical engineering, criminal justice,” Sterling said. “He wanted to do all sorts of things, and he knew he could do it.” “Jabari was one of the brightest kids, one of the loveliest kids,” his father William Peoples said. “We don’t know how we’re going to go on without Jabari but we’re going to fight for Jabari until our last breath.” Crump said the fight is far from over. “We refuse to be well-behaved victims,” he said. “Jabari is going to continue to be a priority for us.”
Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives meets with press after 8 hour speech against Trump’s Budget Bill
By Lauren Burke, NNPA Congressional Correspondent
By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti. The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, when Vice President J. D. Vance broke the tie in favor of the bill. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who was last minute supporter, after winning some concessions for her state, said, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants. “The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3. “The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable. Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. As many as 300 mostly rural hospitals may be forced to close by the Medicaid cuts. Health research groups predict that 51,000 people a year may die from not receiving needed medical attention due the health and nutrition cuts. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and clearer than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.
Earl D. Smith, 58, a Black man, was found hanging from a tree in the middle of the day in Albany, New York, the capital city of the state of New York. His body was discovered on June 18 around 8 a.m. Police removed his body from the tree and ruled his death a suicide, but others question their assessment. Several neighborhood residents have posted on TikTok that Mr. Smith had been baptized recently, according to a GoFundMe page organized by Melissa Saunders, who writes that Smith was her uncle. Mr. Smith was born on October 17, 1966. He was a husband, father, and grandfather, as stated in his obituary. He worked odd jobs, and one of his favorite songs was “Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang” by Dr. Dre.
Although police said his death was a suicide, others claimed he may have been lynched, which has been rampant throughout our history. There is considerable history to support that belief. From 1882 to 1968, 4,743 lynchings occurred in the U.S., according to records maintained by the NAACP. The highest number of lynchings during that period occurred in Mississippi, with 581 recorded. Georgia was second with 531, and Texas was third with 493. Lynchings did not happen in every state. There are no recorded lynchings in Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Nevada, South Dakota, Vermont, or Wisconsin. Black people were the primary victims of lynching: 3,446, or about 72 percent of the people lynched, were Black. But they weren’t the only victims of lynching. Some White people were lynched for helping Black people or for being anti-lynching. Immigrants from Mexico, China, Australia, and other countries were also lynched.
Zohron Mamdani with his family, celebrate political victor
By Joe Jurado, NewsOne
On Tuesday, Zohran Mamdani shocked New York and the country when the early results of New York City’s democratic primary for mayor showed that he took a commanding lead and is expected to beat out former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, ran on a progressive platform that focused on affordability and has signaled his support for New York’s Reparations Commission. In a statement rereleased to NewsOne after Tuesday’s results, Mamdani reaffirmed his support for reparations and programs that will improve the lives of the city’s Black residents. “As Mayor, I will ensure that my administration meaningfully advances equality for Black New Yorkers, in our steadfast commitment to freedom and dignity for all people. New York City participated actively in the slave trade and furthered its legacy through racist institutions, policies and laws; the City should reconcile and repair this legacy of slavery, stolen wealth, and discrimination,” the statement reads. As an assembly member, Zohran Mamdani supported New Yorkers for Reparations, which is the first phase of a longer saga to repair the harm of anti-Black discrimination from its foundation to make freedom and equality real for all New Yorkers. “As Mayor, I will work with our state partners to move those recommendations forward,” Mamdani’s statement read. “I will lead with my core belief that our liberation is bound together; redressing slavery’s harms—past to present—is necessary to achieving freedom and equality for Black New Yorkers, and for us all. I look forward to #MakingEqualityReal with you.” Zohran Mamdani’s apparent win can only be described as a stunning upset and seems to have shaken both the GOP and Democratic establishment. Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican representing New York’s 21st congressional district, released a statement saying, “A radical, Defund-the-Police, Communist, raging Antisemite will most likely win the New York City Democratic Mayoral primary.” Stefanik has long been a staunch Trump ally. So deporting undocumented folks without due process, spreading election lies, and engaging in an unnecessary trade war that will only raise costs for working-class Americans is fine, but rent freezes and free public transportation are where she draws the line. Got it. Current New York Mayor Eric Adams, who was elected as a Democrat but is currently running for reelection as an independent, called Mamdani a “snake oil salesman” during an appearance on Fox and Friends. Adams has faced sinking approval ratings as a result of his corruption scandal and his subsequent cozying up with the Trump administration after the Justice Department moved to have the case dismissed. Mamdani’s campaign has been noted for its relentless optimism and his willingness to speak to voters on the ground level. His campaign largely focused on affordability in a city that has seen substantial increases in the cost of living. His key campaign issues revolved around creating more affordable housing, city-owned grocery stores to bring down food prices, and making buses free. All of these ideas would be paid for through tax increases on the rich. Should Zohran Mamdani win in November’s election, he will be New York’s first South Asian and Muslim mayor. Mamdani’s primary opponent, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, seemed poised to win the Democratic primary. He had millions of dollars in funding, backing from the Democratic establishment, a recognizable last name in New York politics, and had been polling ahead of Mamdani throughout most of the campaign. Cuomo ran on a business-as-usual platform, not really addressing the issues of affordability that have affected working-class New Yorkers. He largely coasted on his name, which was a bizarre move considering he left the governor’s office in disgrace after facing multiple accusations of sexual harassment. Yet that didn’t stop the very same folks who condemned the accusations from endorsing his mayoral campaign. Cuomo conceded to Mamdani on Tuesday night when the early results showed Mamdani had a commanding lead. “Tonight was not our night,” Cuomo told supporters on Tuesday. “Tonight was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night. He put together a great campaign, and he touched young people and inspired them and got them to come out and vote. Dan Pfeiffer, a former aide to President Barack Obama, said on X (formerly Twitter) that Democrats “have a lot to learn” from Mamdani. “What’s happening in NYC is a blaringly loud message to those in the Dem establishment who still cling to old politics, recite focus-grouped talking points, and are too afraid to say what needs to be said,” he wrote.
Closing out another term, the right-wing Supreme Court majority gave the Constitution and the Rule of Law the finger in Trump v. CASA, limiting the ability of federal courts to serve as a check on extreme executive action. In its 6-3 opinion in CASA, the right-wing majority sidesteps the issue of birthright citizenship and positions itself as reigning in the power of the federal courts instead of the increasingly out-of-pocket executive branch. At issue were federal court injunctions that prevented Trump’s January 20 executive order restricting birthright citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents. The majority in CASA essentially hides behind its interpretation that a federal court does not have the authority to issue a nationwide injunction for arguably unconstitutional actions of the Trump administration that impact the entire country. This would force impacted individuals to sue in every single jurisdiction to have their rights enforced and could create disparate application of the Constitution based on where a person was living. Writing another formidable dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pulled no punches, rebuking her colleagues and the Trump administration’s erosion of the Constitution. “This perverse burden shifting cannot coexist with the rule of law,” wrote Jackson. “As a result, the Judiciary–the one institution that is solely responsible for ensuring our Republic endures as a Nation of laws–has put both our legal system, and our system of government, in grave jeopardy.” The shrug and wink happening between the right-wing majority on SCOTUS and in the other two branches of the federal government should be alarming. As Elie Mystal wrote for The Nation, SCOTUS just made it difficult for federal courts to stop Trump from exceeding his authority to end constitutionally protected birthright citizenship. “It’s a distinction, one that lawyers will try to exploit for an entire rearguard action to defend citizenship in this country, but one that’s unlikely to make much of a difference if you happen to be born on the Republican side of the tracks,” wrote Mystal. “Once you read the fine print, it becomes clear that this decision is a historic, five-alarm catastrophe.” Immigrant Rights’ Coalition Immediately Files Class-Action Testing the limits of the majority’s opinion in CASA, a coalition representing immigrant rights advocates, filed a nationwide class-action lawsuit challenging the executive order restricting birthright citizenship. The legal coalition behind the class-action, including the ACLU and the Legal Defense Fund, still have a separate case making its way through the federal courts that was not considered in Friday’s SCOTUS opinion. “The Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship, and no procedural ruling will stop us from fighting to uphold that promise,” said Tianna Mays, legal director for Democracy Defenders Fund. “Our plaintiffs, and millions of families across this country, deserve clarity, stability, and justice. We look forward to making our case in court again.” On its face, the majority opinion in CASA appears to be a mixed bag. Still, it gave Trump enough leeway to feel vindicated in his erosion of the Constitution, a cornerstone of American democracy. Unambiguously affirmed in the 14th Amendment, Birthright citizenship has been widely recognized for generations. “Citizenship is a right afforded to us by birth, not by privilege,” said Karla McKanders, director of the Legal Defense Fund’s Thurgood Marshall Institute. “The Trump administration’s executive order is an unlawful attempt to entrench racial hierarchies and establish a second class of citizens in the United States. We will continue working to ensure that birthright citizenship — a right granted by the U.S. Constitution — is protected, and that families are not torn apart because of this executive order.” As SCOTUS cannot invalidate the amendment itself outright, it distorts legal analysis to help the Trump administration subvert over 150 years of legal precedent. Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the Advancement Project, called the decision “one of the most dangerous and blatantly unconstitutional attacks on immigrant communities and the rule of law in modern history.” “Through its restrictions on universal injunctions, the Court is placing limits on who could be protected from this executive order, which means to strip U.S.-born children of non-citizen parents of their birthright citizenship in a direct assault on the 14th Amendment,” Dianis said. “As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson points out, today’s ruling is an existential threat to the rule of law because it allows the Trump Administration to apply the executive order to many newborns who are guaranteed citizenship under the 14th Amendment but have not yet filed a lawsuit in federal court.” While this decision may not directly impact Black Americans, the expansion of authoritarian power granted to the Trump administration will certainly find its way to our doorstep. One of three Reconstruction Era amendments, the 14th Amendment has served as a launch pad for ensuring equal protection and due process, and various civil and human rights. “To challenge it erases a core American promise and serves as a calculated step toward authoritarianism,” Dianis said. “This reckless and racially motivated executive action is a transparent attempt to silence and disempower communities of color, particularly Latine, AAPI, African, and Caribbean immigrant families. And it comes alongside a barrage of executive orders that attempt to dismantle racial equity, voting rights, and immigration protections, each designed to chip away at our collective power.”
During Trump’s address to Congress in January, State of the People organizers, activists and journalists stood up a 24 -hour streaming channel. As the Senate and House debate Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” State of the People is broadcasting a marathon on its YouTube channel to fully inform the public on the devastating impact of Trump’s bill. From State of the People, here are some ways in which the legislation will impact our communities:
Broke: Money, Jobs, Economy
This bill cuts $1.3 trillion in food assistance and health coverage while giving the wealthy that exact amount in tax breaks.
It adds $3.25 trillion to the national debt which will weaken our economy at a time we can’t afford it.
Kills jobs and increases energy costs: Puts 1.75 million construction jobs at risk — with unions warning, “this stands to be the biggest job-killing bill in the history of the country”
Puts 2 million clean energy jobs at risk and increases energy bills by hundreds of dollars across the country
Trump and the GOP’s budget is the most regressive tax scheme in at least the last 40 years — possibly ever. The bill will “actively transfer” money from the poorest Americans into the pockets of the ultra-wealthy
The impact of the “cuts” they are talking about is really a transfer of wealth reduce incomes among the poorest 20% of Americans by 3.8%, while increasing the incomes of the richest 20% by 3.7%
Sick: Healthcare, Medicaid, Medicare and the ACA; Veterans
• Rips away health care from over 16 million Americans through over $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act — including the largest cut to Medicaid in American history.
• These Medicaid cuts are going to reach down into every corner of our nation’s health care system.
• Puts over 300 rural hospitals at risk of shutting down, ripping away critical, lifesaving care from hundreds of rural communities across the country.
Seniors will lose care at home and be left with fewer nursing homes and fewer nurses.
Kids with disabilities will lose home care.
And never before has there been legislation so focused on denying care to eligible Americans by adding more red tape, and making it harder for anyone who relies on Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
More than 37 million children are enrolled in either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a federal program that provides affordable health insurance to pregnant mothers and children who live just above Medicaid’s poverty threshold.
Combined, Medicaid and CHIP protect nearly half of all children in the United States, beginning with important prenatal care, covering over 40% of U.S. births as well as nearly half of all rural births, and continuing to insure millions of vulnerable children into young adulthood.
Veterans: Over 9 million veterans are enrolled in VA health care, and millions more rely on Medicaid, Medicare, or ACA coverage to fill gaps — these cuts will gut their care and overwhelm an already strained VA system.
About 1 in 10 veterans rely on Medicaid — especially post-9/11 veterans, low-income veterans, and those living in rural areas where VA facilities are limited.
Veterans of color, women veterans, and disabled veterans are disproportionately impacted, as they are more likely to be dual-eligible for VA and public health programs now on the chopping block.
These cuts would force many veterans to delay care, forgo treatment, or drown in medical debt — all while funding more weapons and war.
Hungry: Taking food assistance away from our kids and communities
5 million Americans lose food assistance (Congressional Budget Office SNAP projections)
Work requirements expanded to age 64 (House Republican reconciliation bill text)
New red tape around the child tax credit, making it harder to qualify for some of the benefits like school lunch programs and SNAP
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, SNAP helps pay for groceries for more than 15 million children in the U.S. (USDA)
Could force some states to end their SNAP programs. Over the last 50 years, SNAP’s nationwide availability has largely eliminated severe hunger and malnutrition throughout the United States. This bill walks away from the long-standing, bipartisan, and national commitment to food assistance that made that possible.
Additional Impacts:
Endangers our communities by making it easier to buy dangerous firearms and silencers
The administration proposes a 43.6% decrease in HUD program funding, from $77.0 billion to $43.5 billion. This includes a $26.7 billion cut from federal rental assistance programs as the responsibility for rental assistance would shift to the states. The proposal also eliminates the $3.3 billion Community Development Block Grant program, designed to support community infrastructure, public facilities, and programming.
The Department of Health and Human Services budget would be reduced by 26.2%, from $127.0 billion to $93.8 billion. Within this, a new $500 million fund would support the “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, designed to allow HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to address nutrition, medication, and food and drug quality.
A reform of the National Institutes of Health would reduce its budget by $18.0 million, requiring the closure of the National Institute on Minority and Health Disparities and the National Institute of Nursing Research. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget would also drop $3.6 billion.
Another $4.0 billion would be cut by ending the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program operated by the Administration for Children & Families.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs (-$646 million)
By Stacy M. Brown Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
Despite the promise of equal opportunity heralded by the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, a new WalletHub report reveals that America’s educational system remains critically unequal—especially for Black students. The disparities, experts say, have only widened in recent years, worsened by former President Donald Trump’s dismantling of federal education funding and his administration’s attacks on teaching real American history.
WalletHub’s analysis ranked states by racial equality in education, using key metrics such as gaps in graduation rates, college degree attainment, and standardized test scores between Black and white students. Wyoming, New Mexico, and West Virginia top the list for equity, while Connecticut, Minnesota, and Wisconsin rank lowest. According to the report, school districts with predominantly white students receive $23 billion more in funding per year than districts with majority nonwhite students. “Promoting racial equality in education can have a significant impact on promoting equality in the overall economy,” said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. “It is essential to ensure that all school districts receive sufficient funding, the latest technology, and equal opportunities for tutoring and extracurricular activities.”
But instead of addressing these inequities, Trump and his allies have stripped resources from schools, gutted the Department of Education, and fiercely opposed instruction that addresses America’s history of racism, slavery, and systemic inequality. Their rejection of Critical Race Theory—often a stand-in for broader discussions about race—has sparked book bans, curriculum censorship, and efforts to whitewash the past. Rodney Coates, a WalletHub expert and professor at Miami University, said the system is structurally rigged. “Race and class are both associated with differential school spending. Poor areas—mostly Black, Native American, and Hispanic—have lower per-pupil spending across our country,” Coates said. “Educational opportunity and a commitment to excellence are the only lasting solutions.” The report details how states like Connecticut and Wisconsin—among the worst for racial equity—suffer from wide gaps in high school graduation rates and access to advanced coursework. In contrast, states like Hawaii and New Mexico show narrower gaps in test scores and degree attainment. “It’s not just about race, but the effects are highly racialized,” said Shauna Lani Shames, a WalletHub expert and political science professor at Rutgers University. “Schools remain segregated today by geography and class, which are deeply tied to race due to generations of redlining and discriminatory policies.” The pandemic and recent economic downturns have exacerbated the problem. As WalletHub expert Tyrone Howard of UCLA explained, the regression in math and reading scores for Black and Brown students is alarming, and without targeted resources—school counselors, academic support, and mental health services—the gaps will only grow. William McCorkle, also a WalletHub expert and an education professor at the College of Charleston, noted structural barriers in South Carolina that perpetuate inequality. “Even at the kindergarten level, some children are divided based on gifted and talented programs, which are almost completely based on parental income.” According to experts, solving these inequities requires more than just increased funding. It demands a commitment to truth, accurate teaching of history, and valuing every student regardless of their background. “Every person deserves the finest education we can provide,” said WalletHub Expert Dr. Kim Scipes, a professor emeritus of sociology at Purdue University Northwest. “Despite its wide usage, there is no white race, no black race, no brown race—there is only one race, the human race,” Scipes stated.
